Soccer Speaks Many Languages

Innocent Ndayizeye scrunched an old plastic bag into a tiny clump, tied it with string, and stuffed it into another plastic bag. He continued doing this until the crumpled bags became large enough to be the ball for a football game with his friends. For goalposts, the boys took off their shirts and laid them on the parched land.

A Sport for Everyone

Innocent and his friends lived in the Mkugwa refugee camp in Tanzania. The children formed football teams, had competitions, and played at every chance.

The refugee families in the camp were separated based on ethnicity — the Tutsis in one section, the Hutus in another, and the families with both Tutsis and Hutus in their own section. This was because the Tutsis and Hutus were fighting each other in a civil war. Despite this, all of the children played together.

“We didn't worry if the other kids were Tutsis or Hutus,” recalls Innocent. “We just thought of them as our friends.” Playing football gave all the children a common bond.  

Life in a Refugee Camp

Refugee camps such as Mkugwa exist around the world. They are places where groups of people live when their homeland is unsafe because of natural disaster, famine, or war. When people flee their country to escape persecution or violence, they are called refugees. International laws protect them.

When Innocent was four years old, he and his family left their home country of Burundi. The civil war had made it too dangerous to stay there. They walked until they reached the Mkugwa refugee camp. Innocent's dad built a two-room house for his family out of mud and sticks that they gathered.

Since Innocent's family had left many of their belongings behind, they needed food and clothing. People from around the world donated these items to the refugee camp. If it weren't for such help from others, “I would probably not be alive today,” Innocent says.

Innocent's parents lined up once a month to receive food and clothing for the family. They cooked their food on a wood fire outside of their house. Most of the time, all they had was rice.

While living in the camp, Innocent's dad fixed radios and helped build mud homes for other refugees. Innocent's mother worked as a nurse, helping to care for the sick. Innocent went to school in the camp. His favorite part was recess, when he would play football.  

Moving to America

After five years of living in the refugee camp, Innocent's family moved to the United States with the help of a charitable organization. When they reached the United States, Innocent's family went first to Kentucky and then to Iowa.

Everyone in Innocent's family spoke Kirundi and French, but not English. A church group was helping them, and a few of its members began to teach them English. They also helped Innocent's family set up an apartment, buy groceries, and enroll the children in school.

Friendship Through Soccer

Innocent was nine when he began school in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He knew none of the other kids, and he didn't speak the language of his classmates very well.  At recess, though, there was something he understood. Kids played his favorite game, but in the United States they called it soccer instead of football.  Through soccer, Innocent made friends. They helped him learn English words and American games. Innocent found that people everywhere can be friendly and helpful. It didn't matter if they spoke a different language or were from a different place. 

A Bright Future

Over the years, Innocent's family has adjusted to life in America. Now an American citizen and a freshman at Iowa State University, Innocent gets good grades and speaks English fluently. He earned a scholarship, and he is majoring in construction engineering so that he can learn to build houses, as his father did. He plays American football, basketball, and — you guessed it — soccer.

Innocent has played soccer for as long as he can remember, and it has helped him in many ways. The game brought him together with children from different backgrounds while he lived in a refugee camp. It helped him feel at home when he was a new arrival in America. And through the opportunities it has created for him, it is helping him to fulfill his dreams.